A PINK TEA
Although old Mrs. Hollister owned the house and nearly all of the
handsome antique furniture, Mrs. Archie seemed often to forget that
fact, and from her manner one might infer that the lady regarded her
mother-in-law as a sort of interloper. The old lady would allow her to
go just so far, after which she would suddenly pull her up with a sharp
turn and admonish her with such a cutting rebuke that Mrs. Archie would
blush painfully and apologize. But while antagonistic on most points
they each agreed on Ethel. Even Grandmother felt that her
daughter-in-law was wise in trying to fit the girl for the smart set,
where she would have social position and money, and she even sided with
the wife against her son, who considered it all wrong.
One afternoon Archibald Hollister came home early and ran right into the
"Pink Tea" crowd. Old Mrs. Hollister, tastefully gowned in black and
white, sat in the library where the maids brought up refreshments to
her. A young musician whose mother had been a schoolmate of Mrs.
Hollister's, and who was poor, played the piano from four to seven for
the small sum of three dollars. Everything went off pleasantly. The
maids acted as though they were really fixtures in the house. The
refreshments were excellent. No wonder with the line of autos before the
door people considered the Hollisters wealthy, "but plain and solid with
no airs, etc."
Old Mrs. Hollister enjoyed young people's society, and they all voted
her a dear. She'd invite their confidences, and before leaving each girl
would come up to the library for a chat with Grandmother.
"Oh, Mrs. Hollister," said Lottie Owen, a girl of Ethel's age, "have you
heard about the 'turkey trot?' We can't dance it any more,--it's been
suppressed."
"How does it go?" asked the old lady. "I've read something of it."
"Well, just wait,--I'll get Nannie Bigelow and we'll dance it for you."
Thereupon the two girls would show Grandmother Hollister the steps.
"That's something like the 'Boston Dip,'" responded she very much
excited. "Why, when I was a girl my mother took me away from a cotillion
one night because they danced it," and she grew pretty as she excitedly
told of her younger days.
"I bet you were lovely, Mrs. Hollister," said Nannie. "Ethel will never
be as pretty as you were. We were looking at your portrait in the
drawing room. You must have been fascinating, and as for Mr.
Hollister--your husband--well, he was just a dear."
The old lady blushed. Here Lottie spoke up:
"Yes, and people say you were such a belle. Old Mr. Tupper was at our
house and met Ethel, and he told us a lot about you. But here's Mr.
Hollister," and they rushed forward to greet her son.
"Well, well!" he exclaimed gallantly, "I didn't expect to get into such
a garden of roses. And you, too, Mother--why, you've actually grown
younger."
"That's just what we tell her," said Nannie. "We've been dancing the
'turkey trot' for her," they whispered, slyly kissing her goodbye.
These were happy afternoons for Grandmother, after which she and her son
would sit and chat.
"It sort of livens things up to have young people about, doesn't it,
Mother?" he said, taking a cup of tea and a sandwich.
"Yes, Archie, it certainly does; but you look tired."
"I am, Mother," replied the man, "I wish Ethel was finished with her
school and happily married. This strain is telling on me and I suppose
poor Bella suffers from it even as I do."
"It's too bad, Archie. I don't like this sailing under false colors.
People imagine Ethel a wealthy girl. Probably they think she'll inherit
my money. Of course, they never dream that I'm penniless and that you
have a salary of only three thousand a year; but so long as we keep out
of debt I don't know as we are doing wrong."
"Has Kate gone?" he asked.
"Yes, she left this morning. Bella took her to the train. She's gone to
visit her mother's people in Tarrytown. Kate's a nice girl."
"She's a sensible girl. I only hope that Ethel will grow into as good a
woman as Kate Hollister," said Archibald.
"You see, Kate has a new fad," began Grandmother--"not a fad either; its
purpose is too earnest to call it that. She is the head of a Company of
girls called 'Camp Fire Girls.' They are something like the 'Boy Scout
Organization.' The object is to make girls healthy. It gives them
knowledge; it causes them to work and learn to love it; it makes them
trustworthy; they begin to search for beauty in Nature and they're
perfectly happy. I remember that much, but the sum and substance of it
is that it teaches a girl everything that is useful. Kate is the
Guardian of one Camp Fire section. They meet weekly and from what she
tells me it must be a great thing. Kate spoke of it to Bella but she
ridiculed it and forbade her to speak of it to Ethel. She declares it is
like the Salvation Army, etc., and Kate promised not to, I think she
had hoped to secure Ethel for one of the girls next summer."
"Well, there's no need of us trying to oppose Bella," said her son. "She
is determined that Ethel shall make a brilliant match and in her eyes
this would be a waste of time. No, Mother, the best thing for you and me
to do is to travel along the lines of the least resistance.
Come,--dinner is ready. I'll help you down."